Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Morrill (Dexter) Collection
ARS.0228
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Archive of Recorded Sound
Title: Dexter Morrill Collection
Identifier/Call Number: ARS.0228
Physical Description:
12.5 Linear Feet
: (18) box(es); (1) folder
Date (inclusive): 1958-2013
The collection focuses on the compositions and other documents created by Dexter Morrill
during his career as a musician and composer. Items include correspedonce; manuscript
scores; published scores, sketches and documentation for computer compositions; concert
programs; concert tour documents; project documentation; Morrill's own DMA dissertation;
published and manuscript articles; video and audio recordings. In addition to the physical
materials preserved within the boxes, there are also digital files created by Dexter Morrill
that include scans of materials, archived audio files, and born-digital documents and
compositions produced during his later years.
Dexter George Morrill (1938-2019) was a composer, trumpet player, and professor of music
best known for his collaboration with jazz saxophonist, Stan Getz during the premiere of
'Getz Variations for tenor saxophone and tape' (1984); a Morrill composition which merged
jazz improvisation with computer-generated sounds. In his early years, he studied trumpet
with Dizzy Gillespie at the Lenox School of Jazz, and later composition with Leonard Ratner
and orchestration with Leland Smith before receiving his MA from Stanford University in
1962.
After receiving his DMA in 1970, Morrill began teaching at Colgate University and
collaborated with John Chowning and Leland Smith at Stanford in the creation of the first
mainframe computer music studios and workshops in the world. A significant portion of
Morrill's compositions in this period focused heavily on computer-generated tape and
computer music systems performed in concert with conventional instruments. In the 1980s he
worked with engineer Perry Cook to develop a MIDI trumpet which he would later perform in
many concerts. Morrill also authored two books, 'A Guide to the Big Band Recordings of Woody
Herman' and 'The American String Quartet'.
The collection is divided into five series: Series 1. Scores, Sketches, and Related
Compositional Files, Series 2. Documents, Series 3. Ephemera, Series 4. Recordings, and
Series 5. Scans, Digital Transfers and Born-Digital Files.
Open for research; material must be requested at least three business days in advance of
intended use. Contact the Archive of Recorded Sound for assistance.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must
be submitted in writing to the Head Librarian, Archive of Recorded Sound, Braun Music
Center, Stanford, California 94305. Consent is given on behalf of the Archive of Recorded
Sound as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s)
or assigns.
Dexter Morrill Collection, ARS-0228. Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound, Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, CA.
The Dexter Morrill Collection was donated to the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound by
Dexter Morrill in 2015 and 2016.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Computer music.
Composers -- United States.
Trumpet music
Chamber music